• New York City has many art programs.manhattan and brooklyn bridge image by Bionic Media from Fotolia.com
  
  Art in New York City is as common as yellow taxis. Painters and photographers set up street markets outside museums or in street fairs, and galleries are tucked under bridges, spring up on barges or take over whole neighborhoods. Arts training is widely available as well, in many public and private programs that are as diverse as the artists who work in them. For both young students and mature artists, opportunities to learn and to exhibit are happening all over the city.
  
  

Wingspan Arts

• Wingspan Arts is a non-profit organization that exposes young people in New York City to visual, performing, literary and media arts with professional teaching artists and summer, in-school and after-school programs. The organization teaches fine arts, photography and dance workshops, produces an annual film festival, summer musical theater performances and art exhibitions, works with disciplines as diverse as songwriting and clowning, gives pre-professional training to young musicians and actors and trains students in videography and ballroom dancing and stage poetry slams. Tuition is free for some classes and workshops; others offer scholarships.
  
  Wingspan Arts
  630 9th Ave., Suite 410
  New York, NY 10036
  212-586-2330
  wingspanarts.org
  
  

The Art Students League

• The Art Students League, founded by a group of art students in 1875, is dedicated to the study and pursuit of art for its own sake, in an organization run by artists for artists. It boasts such famous alumnae teachers and students as Cy Twombly, Georgia O'Keeffe, Alexander Calder, Helen Frankenthaler, Jackson Pollock and Louise Nevelson. Classes and workshops are ongoing year-round and include art study for children. The instructors are artists who have complete control of their studios and curricula. The League is housed in a landmark building and exhibition space in Manhattan and on a 15-acre campus in the Hudson River Valley, where there are sculpture studios and a walk-in kiln. Grants, merit scholarships and financial aid are available.
  
  The Art Students League of New York
  215 W. 57th St.
  New York, NY 10019
  212-247-4510
  artstudentsleague.org
  
  

Urban Art Program

• The New York City Department of Transportation launched this initiative to enliven the city with temporary art installations. DOT partners with community-based organizations and artists to install art on construction fences and street barriers, in medians, plazas and traffic triangles and on sidewalks. Performing artists are invited to stage shows in ferry terminals and plazas and light shows are permitted on bridges and archways. Applications for the Urban Art Program are considered by DOT and outside advisors for newly-commissioned artwork, moving existing art from site to site, and short term projects like light shows and theatrical performances. Not-for-profit organizations are eligible for funding.
  
  NYC Department of Transportation
  Division of Planning and Sustainability
  55 Water St., 9th Floor
  New York, NY 1000
  (no phone contact)
  nyc.gov